1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to automated training and, more particularly, is concerned with vehicle simulators.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A vehicle simulator can be defined as a system that simulates the operating conditions of a vehicle in an environment. Where the vehicle simulated is a car, the environment would typically include a road. The environment in this case may also include weather conditions such as fog or snow. Besides cars, examples of other types of vehicles that may be simulated include airplanes, ships, submersibles and space vehicles.
Vehicle simulators provide the means to efficiently train operators. That is, a simulator can be used where an operator has a need to safely learn how to operate the particular vehicle being simulated. Rather than train an operator on a real-world vehicle, the simulator is used to avoid accidents. Clearly, experience garnered through making mistakes on a simulator is invaluable when compared to the inherent risks of vehicle damage, and moreover, operator injury, associated with making a driving error in a real-life situation. As an example, in a police training application, a student could learn the limits of a police cruiser or guidelines for pursuit, and be tested in these areas without the associated risks of real-life training.
In some sense, a simulator achieves a balance between testing the operator's knowledge of the "rules of the road" and testing the operator's use of a vehicle. Testing the operator's knowledge is typically and conveniently accomplished through written and/or verbal examinations. However, examinations are of limited usefulness for operator training. For example, operator reflexes are not tested at all, and, moreover, such examinations do not adequately address the skills necessary for real-time decision-making.
Besides concerns for operator safety, the other alternative, actual vehicle operation, has its pitfalls too. First, the cost of instructor time may be prohibitive. Furthermore, the actual vehicle itself, such as for space or undersea operation, may simply not be available. Lastly, there is always the risk of an accident when a student is training on an actual vehicle under realistic conditions. Although a certain amount of training may occur in benign environments, for example, learning to drive a car in an empty parking lot, there comes a time, early in the operator's training, where driving in an unrealistic environment is no longer useful and practical.
Vehicle simulators address the issue of presenting the operator with a realistic training environment. The principal shortcoming of existing training systems, however, is that they are not providing realistic feedback for incremental learning. For example, in most known systems there is no way to instantaneously gauge one's progress against a prior use of the vehicle while it is in operation.
Video arcade games are another technology providing a certain degree of user feedback. Arcade games are typically placed in public areas such as arcade halls, theaters, airports and other such areas where the users can occupy time and entertain themselves by playing the game. Arcade games utilizing video displays have been around for some time now, beginning with the simplistic game of bouncing a ball across a line with paddles known as "Pong". However, with the passage of time, video arcade games have become ever more sophisticated and realistic.
Since arcade games have housings which occupy a limited space, the computer equipment of the game is subject to strict space constraints. In addition, the user's interest must be captured and maintained by the simulator, thus requiring that processing be accomplished in real-time. The competing space and time goals thus make the task of injecting realism into the games more difficult.
In many senses, the arcade game called "Hard Drivin'.TM.", manufactured and distributed by Atari Games Corp. of Milpitas, Calif., represents the state of the art in arcade game realism. The physical layout of the game includes clutch, brake and gas pedals, a gearshift and a steering wheel. The user, or driver, is provided feedback response from a video display having a three-dimensional graphical representation of the driving environment and from a speaker which generates realistic sounds of driving. A digital processor, comprising a number of microprocessors and a memory, is the interface between the user inputs ant the feedback response.
The training potential of a simulator or arcade game is maximized when the student has user feedback. One form of feedback possible is a display of various performance numbers on a video monitor of the simulator or game. These performance numbers might be elapsed time for completing a track, top speed, points, and so forth. However, this type of information does not inform the student exactly what location(s) and what parameter(s) he may need to improve. Additionally, graphical feedback attracts and holds the student's attention better than a number or a series of numbers. Therefore, a need exists for graphical feedback of performance data that shows the student periodically how he compares to a standard set by an instructor or where and what parameters he needs to improve to attain a standard set by an instructor. A need also exists for realistic vehicle simulators and arcade games to provide personalized feedback, wherein the feedback may be personalized by either the operator/user or by an instructor/champion.
The training potential of a simulator or arcade game is also improved when the user controls or input devices feel and operate like those of a real vehicle. If the input devices feel and work like the real thing, the student should encounter minimal difficulties due to the input devices when moving from a simulator to a real vehicle. For a car, truck or similar vehicle, several controls are mounted on the steering column. These controls frequently are a shift lever and a turn signal lever. The turn signal lever is moved by the driver to activate a turn signal indicator until the turn is substantially complete, at which time a canceling mechanism deactives the turn signal indicator. The shift lever has an indicator, which moves in response to a shift of gear by the driver, that shows what gear is selected. Thus, a need exists for simulator or arcade game input devices that feel and work like those in a real vehicle.
Simulator training would be improved if accurate atmospheric conditions could be reproduced by a vehicle simulator. Atmospheric conditions caused by particles in the air or the position of the sun in the sky, for example, will mute and distort the environmental colors perceived by a driver. The change in coloration can be thought of as resulting from a screen or grid of haze being overlaid on the image. Such a visual cue of color change, henceforth termed hazing, would provide a greater degree of realism in simulators, allowing users to test their driving abilities under varying environmental conditions.
Night driving is another condition in which it is desirable to practice and test driving abilities. As objects are illuminated by the headlights, they become visible out of the darkness. Then, as the user approaches the objects, they appear brighter and easier to perceive. A problem some drivers may have is driving at a speed that doesn't allow safe stopping if an object would be in the roadway beyond the illumination range of the headlights. It would be desirable to safely experience such an effect on a simulator and therefore know how to handle the situation in real-life. Thus, a simulator which provides the capability to emulate time of day, e.g., dawn, day, dusk, or night, and weather, e.g., fog or snow, would give the user a chance to experience most any driving condition.
Hazing, or simulating non-optimal atmospheric conditions, is used in some present military simulators to simulate flying in fog, or some other form of haze. However, the known military simulators require expensive computer hardware, including high resolution video displays, to reproduce these effects.
Moreover, with infinite resolution on a video display, the simulation of atmospheric conditions such as fog, smog, dusk, and the like, would be perfect, i.e., fine droplets or granules could be interleaved with the view. Alternatively, the human eye could be deceived into seeing higher video resolutions than actually available by employing higher rates of video frame update. Unfortunately, most present video systems have limited resolution and slow rates of video update. In addition, the choice of colors in video displays is often limited due to constraints on video memory.
Due to the above-mentioned problems, users desiring realistic training having visual cues which change colors according to atmospheric conditions have either had to have access to expensive equipment or have had to simply do without. A driving simulator having the capability to approximate atmospheric conditions using many readily available and reasonably priced video display systems would therefore be a great benefit in training drivers.